Jump to content

Template talk:GNIS

Page contents not supported in other languages.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Paine Ellsworth (talk | contribs) at 19:05, 2 November 2023 (→top: include Permanently protected notifier). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

WikiProject iconUnited States Template‑class
WikiProject iconThis template is within the scope of WikiProject United States, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of topics relating to the United States of America on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the ongoing discussions.
United StatesWikipedia:WikiProject United StatesTemplate:WikiProject United StatesUnited States
TemplateThis template does not require a rating on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
WikiProject iconMountains Template‑class
WikiProject iconThis template is part of WikiProject Mountains, a project to systematically present information on mountains. If you would like to participate, you can choose to edit the article attached to this page (see Contributing FAQ for more information), or visit the project page where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.MountainsWikipedia:WikiProject MountainsTemplate:WikiProject MountainsMountain
TemplateThis template does not require a rating on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.

If one reads the FAQ page at GNIS, they state that using the session information as a bookmark (which is kind of what the template currently uses) is NOT guaranted to work in the future. However, I do not currently see another way to implement this. RedWolf 19:46, 30 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks

Thanks for this template. I haven't tried it yet, but it looks useful. I link to GNIS entries all the time. Pfly 17:31, 20 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

AntarID

Some features are identified by Antarctic ID. Sample "9763" on McNish Island (currently a dead link). http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic offers a specific form to "Search Antarctica Data". To fix the dead links, we could either include a way to enter those ids on this template or create another one. -- User:Docu

I added the possibility (type=antarid) to {{gnis3}}. Using http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/f?p=179:3:::NO::P3_ANTAR_ID: doesn't appear to work though.
{{gnis3|9763|type=antarid}} renders:
http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/f?p=179:3:::NO::P3_ANTAR_ID:9763 (dynamic: https://web.archive.org/web/2020/https://geonames.usgs.gov/apex/f?p=gnispq:5:::NO::P5_ANTAR_ID:9763 )
We'd probably need to leave a session id in the url. -- User:Docu
Session IDs don't work in general, they only work once. I'll investigate hike395 04:08, 28 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]
I'm stuck: I don't know how to make this work. hike395 04:53, 28 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Ah! Got it to work (from FAQ at GNIS, pointed to by Wwods, thanks!) hike395 08:23, 17 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Looks like the FAQ was updated. Thanks for updating the links. I added the option "type=antarid" to the other two templates. -- User:Docu

I fixed the remaining AntarIDs in articles on Special:Linksearch. -- User:Docu

USGS GNIS

According to USGS GNIS FAQs: the (3) link options are:

For most features:

For Antarctic features:

For a "pre-defined list" by specifying one to four parameters:

Currently, USGS GNIS is having Oracle database performance issues, the above functionalities has been (temporarily) disabled by USGS GNIS. They are working on their issues ... I will post when I hear any updates.

Lists

For "List-class" articles, I believe it would be useful to have a Gnis template which generates the "2:::NO::P1_FNAME,P1_CLASS,P1_COUNTY,P1_STATE" query(ies), rather than manually coding: [http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/f?p=gnispq:2:::NO::P1_FNAME,P1_CLASS,P1_COUNTY,P1_STATE:feature_name,feature_class,county_name,state_name} provided that it is clearly documented (on the Template documentation page) to ONLY retrieve relatively-small lists (USGS GNIS has a "hard limit" of 2000, and initially shows up to the 1st. 15), but most (Wiki-generated) links/queries should be better broken up than that when possible. i.e. most of the time, a "List-class" article should specify at least (2) or (3) of the (4) possible parameters.

If others besides me feel that would be useful, then I can try to rough out a modified version of template {{Gnis3}} named {{Gnis4}} which accepts 1 to 4 named: "name=", "class=", "county=", and "state=" parameters and generates a link intended to be used within an [ External_link ].

The possible technical issue which I can see is if someone creates a "List of Lists" article and repeatedly transcludes such a template, not sure if they might run into one of the Wiki article page size or template configurable limits?

I have seen some long lists and WikiTables, and Recently because of performance issues which I was experiencing when editing, I had to remove some content which I was trying to add.

I wish there was a better way so that some repetitive content gets expanded on the client-side? I suppose Cascading style sheets as opposed to Templates (unless someone is aware of another way?)

Census

Similarly, it would be nice if "Census" (FIPS 55-2,3,4) GNIS data would be retrieved by a link. See: http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/f?p=150:1:::NO:1:P1_SHOW_FIPS55,P1_SHOW_ADV,P1_SHOW_ANTAR:Y%2C%2C

USGS GNIS support replied that such a query link based on "Federal" a.k.a. Census or FIPS 55-2,3,4 codes should be possible as well. They said they will reply with more details after they resolve their other (Oracle database) issue.

GR templates

The latter (Census query) comes from what I see as "overuse" of template {{GR}} with the: 1=U.S. Gazetteer or 2=American FactFinder parameters.

Personally, I prefer to see a template {{Cite gnis}} reference (with the Feature ID and appropriate name supplied), rather than a "non-specific" {{GR}} with parameter 3=U S Board on Geographic Names or 4=Geographic Names Information System.

On GR article talk, I posted requesting that GR (with parameter 1,2,3 or 4) at least be deprecated or superseded in documentation. LeheckaG (talk) 14:51, 14 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Number-only display

I'm making up a List of Boundary Peaks on the Alaska-British Columbia border and one of the columns will be the gnis citation/link - but is there I way I can get it to display only {{12345}} intead of "such and so in the USGS GNIS database" or whatever it says? Same idea I'd like to be able to use {{cite bcgnis}} and {{Cite cgndb}} for linking their citations without the overburden of the template text. I tried using a space after the ID number, where the name should be; maybe I could used use a dash e.g. U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: - but then it would still say "- in the yakkety yak etc". Any possiblity of a switch that would display ID-number only?Skookum1 (talk) 05:08, 3 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

How about [{{gnis3|123456}} 123456]? Should produce 123456. —hike395 (talk) 08:18, 3 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Antarid broken

The way to link to Antarctica articles seems to have changed, but the gnis didn't update the corresponding FAQ. I tried to figure out the new way to link there, but w/o much luck. -- 签名 sig at 09:16, 7 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

{{editprotected}}

I, too, failed to get the templates to link to the specific Antarctic GNIS pages. Instead of linking to an error page, I changed {{gnis2}} and {{gnis3}} to simply point to the Antarctic GNIS search page (at least until GNIS fixes the problem.
Could we change {{gnis}} to be the following, to match the other two?
<noinclude>{{pp-template}}</noinclude>[{{#ifeq:{{{type}}}|antarid|http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/f?p=gnispq:1:::NO:1:P1_SHOW_ANTAR:Y:|http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/f?p=gnispq:3:::NO::P3_FID:}}{{{1|{{{id}}}}}} USGS GNIS: {{{2|{{{name|{{PAGENAME}}}}}}}}]<noinclude>{{Documentation, template|Template:Gnis/doc}}</noinclude>
 Done. Have you informed the gnis administrators ? —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 13:52, 9 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  • It is broken again. GNIS was down for maintenance this weekend and I noticed the FAQ page was updated. I tried using the updated details query for Antarctica but I get an error: "failed to parse SQL query: ORA-00942: table or view does not exist". I will email them about the problem. RedWolf (talk) 02:38, 14 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Full names rather than acronym soup

{{editprotected}} Can we change the acronyms of "USGS GNIS" to "U.S. Geological Survey Geographical Names Information System" to make it make it more understandable. -- Alan Liefting (talk) - 10:04, 5 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

 Done —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 12:44, 5 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

CGNDB

Okay, so it's not this template, but I thought some page watchers might be interested. I have started a discussion for changing CGNDB into a redirect here. Thanks for your input in this matter. Plastikspork ―Œ(talk) 16:40, 15 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

{{editprotected}} Hi - since the template's name was changed, the link to the /doc pg wasn't updated also. It should be: {{Documentation}} within the "noinclude" tags, so it doesn't redirect to the old /doc pg of Template:Gnis/doc. Thanks, --Funandtrvl (talk) 18:21, 17 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Done Rambo's Revenge (talk) 21:52, 17 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Edit request from Ken Gallager, 5 August 2010

{{editprotected}} The template should display as "U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: GNIS"; currently it reads "Geographical". Thanks for your help.

Ken Gallager (talk) 15:06, 5 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Absolutely, well spotted, now fixed. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 15:26, 5 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

leading and trailing whitespace on 1st parameter

Older versions of this template ignored leading/trailing whitespace on the first parameter to produce a valid external link, but this is no longer the case: {{GNIS|123456|Mount Zion Church}} is fine, but {{GNIS|123456|Mount Zion Church}} produces a link which leads to a database error. This should be easy to fix. Any interest or support? —Stepheng3 (talk) 18:39, 28 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I've implemented the fix in {{GNIS/sandbox}} and tested it. I plan to request a protected edit in a day or two. —Stepheng3 (talk) 17:22, 29 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Please copy {{GNIS/sandbox}} to {{GNIS}}. —Stepheng3 (talk) 20:35, 31 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]
I've simplified it. All parser functions trim whitespace; {{#expr:}} is more expensive than {{#if:}}, and {{#if:}} won't complain if the argument is not supplied. --Redrose64 (talk) 16:29, 1 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
I'm fine with the simplification. —Stepheng3 (talk) 17:41, 1 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Done --Redrose64 (talk) 22:50, 1 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you. —Stepheng3 (talk) 00:44, 2 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The purpose of this edit is to provide increased privacy and security for users by having the template generate an HTTPS link for the specified GNIS Feature. At the current time, the template generates an HTTP link. In the template source, please change http://geonames.usgs.gov/ to https://geonames.usgs.gov/ instead. Thanks.

According to Rex Swain's HTTP Viewer, the example URLs http://geonames.usgs.gov/apex/f?p=gnispq:3:::NO::P3_FID:871352 and http://geonames.usgs.gov/apex/f?p=gnispq:5:::NO::P5_ANTAR_ID:2828 (which are included in the template documentation) both generate a 301 (Moved Permanently) redirect to an HTTPS version of the URL. --Elegie (talk) 06:38, 9 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Done Cabayi (talk) 07:37, 9 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

GNIS import to WikiData for easier linking or inclusion in pages

I've been working on importing and resolving GNIS into Wikidata so it is linked to pages (possibly one off depending on the page subject). If a goal of including GNIS is for all items with GNIS ID's the data import may make identifying and including the ID on Wikipedia pages much more automated via templates/infoboxes and/or provide a human an assist with locating the ID in some capacity. See the progress of resolving the GNIS ID's to wikidata items which may or may not have a Wikipedia article in English Mix-n-match mostly imports are under Geography and Infrastructure. There are a surprising number of stub articles in Ceb Wikipedia linked to GNIS. Wolfgang8741 says: If not you, then who? (talk) 01:31, 14 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

CS2 / CS1 support

I started {{GNIS 0}} {{cite gnis2}} so the functionality could be used in pages like Adams, California where the sources are listed at the foot of the article. It uses {{citation}}, so the format follows the CS2 or CS1 standard, with the item name, database and publisher linked separately:

  • "Mount Washington", Geographic Names Information System, United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior or
  • "Mount Washington". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.

rather than the present

Would it be worth merging {{GNIS 0}} code into {{GNIS}}? There should be no impact on pages that use the template at present, apart from a more standard and perhaps more useful appearance, but it could now be used in articles that use the short footnote style. Aymatth2 (talk) 19:14, 1 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

  • I have been using {{cite gnis|ref={{harvid|GNIS}}|…}} with {{sfn|GNIS}}, which isn't wholly satisfactory. Uncle G (talk) 14:55, 3 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]
    I did not notice that {{cite gnis}} exists. Hmm. {{cite gnis}} is more elegant than {{GNIS 0}} because it allows any parameters to be passed through to the cite formatting template, including |ref=, |date= and |accessdate=. On the other hand {{GNIS 0}} generates a harvid automatically and defaults to CS2, where {{cite gnis}} needs the harvid specified and defaults to CS1. With the documented |ID=, |name= and |type= parameters, the {{cite gns}} output looks just the same as {{GNIS 0}}, but {{cite gns}} supports more complete citations.
    I see three separate questions
    • Should {{GNIS}} and its variants be upgraded so they are all based on {{cite gnis}}? Or is there a reason why the present "[url long title]" output format should be retained?
    • Should {{cite gnis}} be upgraded to generate a harvid like Name_GNIS automatically if none is specified?
    • Should there be two templates, analogous to {{cite web}} and {{citation}}, or just one that takes |type=cs2 as a parameter?
    As a step in that direction I have made {{GNIS 0}} a wrapper for {{cite gnis}} and renamed it {{cite gnis2}}.Aymatth2 (talk) 16:23, 3 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I absolutely love this template, but be advised that the external links it generates currently do not work. This is likely due to

User Notice – September 27, 2021
The Domestic Names Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) search page is currently offline as we transition to a redesigned and updated application. We do not have a date when the new GNIS will be available, and we apologize for any inconvenience. (See notice)

When the redesigned application becomes available, will the traditional links still work? There is no guarantee of this. The GNIS template might need to be totally rewritten for compatibility with the new system. 2601:281:D47F:AE60:5DA4:CA6B:B67D:D61A (talk) 02:06, 3 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I've attempted to use the Internet Archive to display older copies of GNIS pages, but IA has not archived every page that Wikipedia links to. When GNIS comes back, we'll try to make these links work again. — hike395 (talk) 08:23, 3 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Back, but lots of data classes have been removed

I haven't had occasion to follow a GNIS link in a while, and I see from here that it was out of commission for a while. It looks like it's functioning again -- except, in at least one article I'd used the template for, both of the related entries are gone from their database. (I did the search manually to verify.)

So I looked in the Internet Archive at the link in the section above, and I found a notice from October 27, 2021, that they'd brought it back on line -- but they've removed several classes of data from their searchable database:

The following feature classes will be archived: Airport, Bridge, Building, Cemetery, Church, Dam, Forest, Harbor, Hospital, Mine, Oilfield, Park, Post Office, Reserve, School, Tower, Trail, Tunnel, and Well.

I don't know if there's anything systematic that can or should be done about this, but I imagine that this has knocked out more than a few links in the encyclopedia (turns out the links I added referenced a school and a harbor). Maybe at least a mention in the documentation that as of that date, entries may be missing?--NapoliRoma (talk) 00:48, 21 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I've added |type=retired to this (and all other GNIS templates), which attempts to fetch the old GNIS page from web.archive.org (as of 2020). This doesn't always work, because archive.org did not fetch every GNIS page referenced by WP. But it's better than 100% broken.
If you see a GNIS link to one of the types that NapoliRoma listed in the documentation, please give |type=retired a try. — hike395 (talk) 21:58, 12 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

All I am getting at this point "The requested service is temporarily unavailable. Please try later." Sometimes messages like this are temporary, sometimes they last for years or forever. -- GreenC 14:35, 14 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

  • What I think should be changed:
  • At top of template, External link: From
    • https://edits.nationalmap.gov/apps/gaz-domestic/public/summary/
  • To
    • https://edits.nationalmap.gov/apps/gaz-domestic/public/search/names

JoeNMLC (talk) 17:39, 2 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Template_talk:GNIS&oldid=1183190910"